Author: IFLR Correspondent | Published: 26 Feb 2019

Deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) have been a mainstay
of recent initiatives to deter corporate offending and change
companies' behaviour in the UK. They offer corporate offenders
the chance to defer criminal charges provided they comply with
financial penalties and other conditions agreed with a
prosecuting authority. They are intended to broaden the range
of tools available to prosecutors when dealing with economic
crimes; namely fraud, offences under the Bribery Act 2010 and
money laundering offences. They also incentivise companies to
self-report wrongdoing, and are characterised as a relatively
quick and certain method of disposing of criminal offending
within a company....